The recession is still hitting thousands of DC residents hard. As the District deals with record unemployment levels, more and more residents are losing their jobs, are not able to find another one ‘ and many are likely falling into poverty as a result.
As part of the launch of a new public campaign, Defeat Poverty DC, DCFPI released a new paper that estimates how much poverty grew in 2009 by looking at measures that are closely tied to poverty status, particularly, food stamps caseloads and changes in employment. (Official Census Bureau data to confirm the increase in poverty will be out later this year.).
Both unemployment and food stamp caseloads have skyrocketed in the District in the current recession. In just two years, DC’s unemployment rate more than doubled and food stamp caseloads increased by nearly 30 percent. These are signs that more and more DC families are experiencing hardship as many are unemployed, losing their incomes, and looking to programs ‘ like food stamps’ to help meet their basic needs.
Using the findings from the changes in the food stamps and unemployment, DCFPI estimates that:
- The poverty rate in the District increased from 16.9 percent in 2008 to 18.9 percent in 2009. This means that an estimated 11,000 additional DC residents below poverty just last year ‘ or below $21,800 for a family of four with two kids ‘ and that over 106,000 DC residents lived in poverty in 2009.
- The increase in poverty is the largest year-to-year increase in the poverty rate in the District since 1995.
And the situation is likely to be worse in 2010. Both the unemployment rate and food stamps caseloads increased throughout 2009, and the most recent unemployment and food stamps figures are far higher than the yearly averages we used to estimate the poverty rate for 2009. In addition, national research shows that both poverty and unemployment take much longer to recover after a recession is officially over. This means that is likely that poverty is higher than 19 percent in 2010 and that it may be years before the District sees poverty decline.
